New Webinar on Basel Statement Revisions

Hospital pharmacists from around the world met in Basel, Switzerland and successfully developed 75 consensus statements reflecting the profession's preferred vision of practice in the hospital setting. The Global Conference on the

Future of Hospital Pharmacy was hosted by the FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section as part of the 68th Annual Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).

A total of 348 registrants representing 98 nations met on 30 and 31 August to develop and endorse the list of goals and objectives. Following two days of debate and discussion, all of the consensus statements were approved by the assembled delegates. The statements cover all areas of the medicine use process in hospitals, including the procurement of medicines, preparation and distribution, prescribing, administration of medicines, and the monitoring of patient outcomes. In addition, issues related to human resources and training were addressed. Medication safety was an important consideration in all consensus statement development.

According to Andy Gray (South Africa), President of the FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section, "We believe that this historic consensus meeting will motivate all pharmacists, especially those in hospitals, to reconsider their practice and commit to improvements that will positively affect patient outcomes."

The FIP Global Conference on the Future of Hospital Pharmacy has been in planning for nearly 3 years, during which time a survey of hospital pharmacy practice was conducted. The survey, describing the nature and scope of pharmacy practice worldwide, included responses from 85 nations representing 86% of the world population. The Chair of the Conference Steering Committee, Lee Vermeulen (USA), said "The incredibly strong evidence base we compiled and analyzed supported the consensus development and will allow hospital pharmacists to expand their practices and have a profound impact on the quality, safety and efficiency of medicine use in the hospital setting."

All of the approved consensus statements, along with evidence-based literature reviews that support the statements, were published in 2009 in a special supplement of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. Free access to the full proceedings were made possible through the Journal web site.